I’m back after my vacation in Italy. I’ll probably talk at more length about it next time, but for the moment, I think we should talk about what’s going on today, November 8th, 2016. Specifically, how we all need to make like Goku and share our energy. Advance apologies for those of our readers in other countries, but this is something I need to say to those of you in the USA.

I’m not here to tell you who to vote for; I’m sure you already know what I think (though I’m always open to friendly discussion, as long as it stays friendly). Tensions have been high, and the stakes feel even higher. The ultimate fate of the country is in the balance, every passionate person screaming who is right and, what seems more important, who is wrong. I only have one request today, on the day of reckoning:

Please vote.

The President of the United States should represent the will of the people and it seems as if this, more than any other recent election, really demonstrates how necessary it is to listen to the people and gauge their temperature – which appears to be at a fever pitch at this point.

The comments on this site have been incredibly well behaved, especially considering the clusterfuck most website comments sections are on this subject. I was hoping at least once I could have a conversation about this based on fact and not emotion, but that request seems to be impossible when our emotions are as supercharged as they have been recently. I think the worst part was how most arguments weren’t about how one person was right for the job, but rather how the other person was WRONG for it. Not even just wrong, but the end of our nation as we know it. Life or death, the fate of the universe, dogs and cats, living together!

I wish the conversation focused more on policy and leadership, but all we seem to be able to do is complain that we’re not being listened to. And I think the reason this election has been so chaotically heated is because so many people feel they aren’t being heard. But guess what: this is your chance to be heard. To be represented. And to all those cynics saying it doesn’t matter – it does. It matters, and this is what it all comes down to. Hell, I’m not even one of those people who thinks voting third party equals throwing away your vote. You need to stand up for what you believe in. You need to speak up, even when people say it’s a waste. Especially then.

Look.

I have seen more people get involved in this election process than ever before. Seriously, I can barely walk a foot without someone complaining about the other candidate. So many people with such strong opinions, many who’ve never thought about politics in their entire life. The amount of people who voting in our country has slowly been on the rise, 2008 seeing a whopping 131 million in the voting booths. And yet, that is still only 58% of our total voting population. And though that is the majority, it’s a small majority.

Where is everyone else?! It’s their country too. So why aren’t they involved? Maybe because they feel it doesn’t matter. Because they feel like their voice doesn’t matter, and they’d rather just put on their headphones and not be there at all. Removed from the election, from the drama, from the problems that plague our nation. Because this drama, this tension and anger – they’ve been difficult. It’s been nightmarishly tense, actually. Taking on the weight of something so big when you are so small in the grand scheme of things… unless you are actively out there, shouting with the rest of the crazies, what can you accomplish? You are one against many.

Except we should be many. We should be a united front. Instead, we are divided. You may not like our candidates, but they were chosen by the people who showed up.

So show up.

Quick aside: my teacher once blamed me for 9/11.

True story: It wasn’t because I’m a terrorist, a government agent, Jewish, or because we white males run everything. It’s because every person involved in a situation, no matter how tangentially, each one of them matters. Each one of us has a responsibility to the rest of humanity. Big small, black, white, Asian, gay, straight, male, female, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, everyone. EVERYONE. It’s obviously insane to say if I was more involved at an early age I could have prevented 9/11, but I also can’t remove myself from that butterfly effect.

The very same teacher who blamed me for 9/11 gave me my first voter registration form. With it he gave me the warning that this, what he was handing me, was power. True power. And it is. Not a sword, a gun, or the ability to write a zombie tale about a guy who’s sad. Power is not something wielded by one person alone. It’s too powerful for that.

Power is wielded by us as a group. It is us as a group coming together, speaking louder than we ever could alone. What happens to one of us happens to all. We bleed grow and die together. This President, whoever she or he may be, must represent the will of the people.